TITANS: Blowout of Solar Bears leaves Titans wondering what could have been

The Titans' Mike Ulrich, left, moves the puck behind the Orlando net as Jesse Todd, second from right, moves into position to take a shot Sunday Mar. 10, 2013 at the Sun Center., (Trentonian photo/Jackie Schear)

Sunday afternoon’s 6-1 demolition of the Orlando Solar Bears provided a glimpse at what this team could have been if they’d been together all season. Instead, all it actually accomplished was pulling Trenton to within 11 points of the eighth and final playoff spot in the ECHL’s Eastern Conference with just nine games left to play.

Though no one seems to have given hope of playing in April just yet, the reality is that it probably isn’t going to happen. And when they should have been celebrating a dominant win achieved by playing a full 60 minutes, many players were simply wondering what might have been.

“It’s been a long season with (learning systems) and everything, but I think everyone’s really starting to grasp it now,” said Titans forward Jacob Cepis, who racked up four assists.

Advertisement

“Really, it’s all just coming together. It kind of stinks that it’s this late, but we’ve got nine more games left to keep it rolling.”

Trenton got it rolling early against Orlando, needing just 19 seconds to beat Solar Bears goaltender Zoltan Hetenyi for the first of six times on the day. Mike Ullrich, in just his third game back after missing the last nine with a back injury, made it look easy. He simply curled off the right wing boards toward the circle, and snapped a quick wrister over Hetenyi’s glove to put the Titans up, 1-0.

“Missing those three weeks, it was tough to get your timing back, but obviously when you’re playing with the line I was, it was really fast and allowed me to get back into it quick,” Ullrich said.

The Titans got the lead to 3-0 by the time the first period was over, thanks to goals from Bryan Haczyk and Andrew Johnston. The rout was officially on at the 11:32 mark of the second period, when Haczyk potted his second of the night on a blast from the right faceoff dot.

“It definitely was one of those games,” Haczyk said. “Shots that weren’t really supposed to be going in were going in, but then again, shots that were supposed to go in, weren’t. But they don’t ask how, just take them how you can get them.”

After Ullrich got his second goal of the game as well — this one just 24 seconds into the third period, the only intrigue left in the game was whether Trenton goaltender Brooks Ostergard would earn his first professional shutout against the team that had let him go earlier this season.

Though Justin Levac ended Ostergard’s shutout bid with 15:41 left to play in regulation, he was still pleased to beat his old team in a rare start for the Titans.

“Today was a very easy day, I appreciate all the work the guys did to make it very easy on my end,” Ostergard said.

“Any time you can beat your former team or old buddies, it’s a good feeling. A couple of them gave me a few comments going off the ice, but it was all in fun.”

Eric Baier’s slapshot through traffic midway through the final frame accounted for the final 6-1 score, and also chased Hetenyi to the bench in favor of backup Patrick Killeen. As for the Titans, they might like to back up to a few tough losses they had earlier in the season, and the playoff picture would be a lot more interesting than it is right now.

“Crazier things have happened,” said head coach Vince Williams of his team’s bleak playoff chances.

“We finally got some guys here...our job is to win with what we have.”